On 2012-11-07, Wolfgang Dautermann <dauti at oeh.tu-graz.ac.at> wrote:
> many Maxima-packages include documentation - but often only as a comment
> in the sourcecode (and there is no convenient way to display it from maxima.
>
> Octave(/Matlab) has a simple method for displaying help for
> addon-packages: they parse comments and display it using a
> help()-command
> (http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Comments-and-the-Help-System.html).
>
> I have written a similar function for Maxima - you can find it at:
> http://wolfgang.dautermann.at/maxima/help_package.mac
Well, since Maxima already uses Texinfo for documentation, I think it's
better to use that for packages too. Texinfo is idiosyncratic but not
too hard to use. Instead of creating a new system for parsing
documentation, I am inclined to use an existing system.
Some time ago I figured out a way to link per-package Texinfo files into
the built-in help system. I raised the idea of merging that into the
Maxima help system but didn't get any interest. Maybe I'll try again.
best
Robert Dodier